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Clear 4G “Super Fast Mobile Internet™” Review – Is It Time To Go Mobile?

Blake Waddill — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 06:01:32 +0000

If you’re anything like me, you’re always on the move. I somehow manage to drive nearly 2000 miles every month only traveling in the DFW metroplex. When you are on the road that much, it’s not always easy to find a place with free WiFi.

Sure, you can stop at Starbucks or fast food chains which are increasingly starting to have free WiFi, but they aren’t always convenient. Even then, many of these places don’t have power outlets, so you end up getting stuck with a dead laptop (you have a converter for your car, right?).

Finally, there are times my wife needs to check things online while we are driving from one place to another, and it is really nice not having to stop for her to use the internet.

Enter Clear, the high speed 4G mobile network. Clear is backed by a several big companies you might have heard of like Google and Sprint. If you live in an area where Clear has coverage, you’ve probably seen dozens of billboards and commercials promoting the product.

Clear claims that you can stream movies, music, and play video games on their 4G network without any hiccups, so I decided to give Clear a try. You can get an USB card or a standard home based modem or both for $55/month. I opted to get both since I travel a lot, but also have a home network that my family uses.

Speed

So far, I’m pretty happy with Clear’s speed. I’ve found the USB modem tends to be faster overall, but the difference between the home modem and the USB card is pretty slim.

For regular browsing, I have no complaints about the speed. I don’t really notice the difference between Clear and the Road Runner/TWC internet I had before. Streaming video also works very well.

I am sorely disappointed with gaming speed though. I haven’t suffered a whole lot of packet loss, but my ping is never under 100 ms. I feel like I’m always at a serious disadvantage anytime I try playing games online, so I would not recommend relying on Clear if you’re focused on gaming. Occasionally, I get disconnected, but I can always get reconnected without significant wait.

Overall, I’d give Clear a “B” for speed. It’s fast enough to use as your exclusive home internet and faster than any other mobile internet. As long as you’re not gaming, Clear should be fine.

Coverage

With Clear just starting, many new towers are going up on what seems like a daily basis. I live in the northeast area of the DFW metroplex (Mckinney for those of you that know the area). Driving around, I have found a couple of random dead spots that disconnect me. Also, there are some areas northwest DFW (near Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth) were I would like them to add coverage.

Overall, there are very few holes in the coverage, and it’s very nice being able to download videos or stream music while driving. I would give Clear an “A-” in the DFW area for coverage.

I can’t speak for the other areas, but if you live in Portland, Seattle, Leas Vegas, Hawaii, Atlanta, Chicago, Philly, Charlotte, Raleigh, or pretty much anywhere in Texas, you should strongly consider giving Clear a try. The network is only going to expand and get faster.

My only complaint at this point is that they don’t have any affiliate offers because I would promote the heck out of it otherwise!

Leave a comment if you have any questions about Clear.

Invade Blog Archives To Build Your Knowledge In A Flash

Blake Waddill — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:01:55 +0000

The anticipation of a new post everyday can be intoxicating. Many times the anticipation is better than the article itself because it is something new to teach and amuse us. But that doesn’t mean it will help you become a better blogger right now.

It turns out there is actually a better way to learn about blogging than hanging on the edge waiting for the article addressing the topic you are struggling with. It is the miracle called archives. I know the word brings to mind the Hollywood image of an office building basement where old useless files are stored; they only seem to come in handy when trying to solve some strange mystery whose roots came from years before.

In reality, archives are your best friend if you’re a blogger. While the world of blogging and making money online is constantly changing, the same principles from before still apply now. You might not be able to slap up 3 AdSense blocks and make a living like in the past; however, picking niches, writing solid content, networking, or any other topic you might need advice on are still the same.

In addition to finding what you’re looking for, you’ll likely come across countless other articles that will shed light on aspects of your blog you never considered.

Archives are an invaluable resource in other niches besides just blogging too. If you pick through the archives of blogs like Copyblogger or Chris Brogan, you’ll be able to find copywriting and social media advice that consultants would charge you a thousand dollars an hour for at a bargain price: Free! Even weight loss, cooking, or education blogs will have countless amazing ideas that you can find quickly reading the archives instead of waiting for the next post.

Proactively hunting for inspiration or tips rather than waiting for them to find you will accelerate your ascent to the top. Next time you’re waiting for that perfect post that addresses what you’re struggling with, skip the wait and search the archives of your favorite blogs. There is a good chance what you are looking for is already there.

Photo Credit: Reinante El Pintor de Fuego

How To Get The Most Traffic From Every Article You Write

Blake Waddill — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:01:13 +0000

After reading of the comments from my most recent post about a blogging schedule and Leo Babauta’s article about How to Deliver the Highest Impact with Each Post, I really started thinking about ways to really capture both of these ideas together.

If you’re posting killer articles day after day, but not seeing significant growth the problem might not be your content. Your problem might be where you are publishing your article.

Guest posts are one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic to any blog. Even the “A-list” bloggers like Daniel Scocco use the power of guest posts to drastically increase the traffic to their blogs.

Instead of posting amazing content 5 days a week on a blog that isn’t getting any traffic, try submitting your best one or two articles to other blogs in your niche. Obviously, a high traffic and well respected blog is the bests place to share, but even smaller blogs in your niche can send you new readers.

One of the best ways to pick which blogs to submit your articles to is to browse through each blog’s archives. Notice not just the subjects of posts, but also specifically find other guests posts. Use these posts as a measuring stick for both the quality and style of your content.

On Daily Blog Tips, for example, a huge number of the guest posts are lists of some sort. In fact, more than half the lists on DBT are written by guest authors. If you have a killer list article that you just finished up or have in queue to post next week, consider submitting it instead.

While it is true that daily posting will bring readers back more frequently than posting once or twice a week, but people have to come to your site before they can become regulars in the first place. Don’t look at it as a loss of content on your site, but a gain of credibility and potential followers from another. After you see the results, you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner.

Photo Credit: WebSuccessDiva

Two Bad Excuses Bloggers Use For Not Linking Out

Blake Waddill — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:27:29 +0000

Hyperlinks are they foundation that the internet was built upon. Links are the juice that blogs live on as well. Inbound links are the highest sign of respect another blogger can send you because they truly believe your content is worth reading.

Linking to someone requires trust. If you’re sending your readers to another person’s site, your credibility as a source of valuable information is on the line. Maybe that is why it is so rare that bloggers link out unsolicited.

The more blogs I read, big and small, I’ve noticed that very few blogs regularly use outbound links, and I’m not sure why. There are 2 main reasons I can think of, but both neither make sense when you really consider it.

The First Reason Bloggers Don’t Link Out Is They Don’t Want People To Leave Their Site

This seems like a logical reason not to link out. If someone clicks on your link they have to leave your site to go to another site. Why on earth would you sending someone to another blog help you?

The facts are, if someone is reading your article long enough find the links and follow them, they are going to be interested enough to stay on your site and finish your article. As a blogger, sharing quality content is what makes you valuable, so if you share valuable content at another blogger’s site, you’re providing quality.

The Second Reason Bloggers Don’t Link Out Is SEO and Page Rank Sculpting

Whether we like it or not, the majority of SEO comes from inbound links. That means linking to other pages within your site can help your SERP and Page Rank. Some people call it page rank sculpting (Daniel Scocco calls it making your own PR).

When talking about “PR Sculpting” each link is considered “link juice.” The more outbound links you have, the less juice each one is worth. This means many bloggers try to use minimal outbound links to increase their internal link juice.

Using the “nofollow” tag prevents link juice from being passed to the link target and was once used for additional sculpting. Last summer, Google announced the nofollow tag still split the link juice, but didn’t pass it. This is effectively throwing away the SEO/PR value of nofollow links.

This matters because all the comments that get left on your site are outbound links and consume juice even if they are nofollow. If you have a highly interactive audience, you’re going to have more outbound links from comments that you could ever stuff into your articles.

When it’s all said and done, if people are enjoying your blog, linking out isn’t going to hurt your following and will make you look like a great source for information. Adding a couple of outbound links isn’t going to hurt your SEO or PR and will get you a couple of trackback links in return.

Image Credit: Skittzitilby

Is Your Posting Frequency Working For You Or Are You Working For It?

Blake Waddill — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 06:01:51 +0000

Posting schedule is a topic that is often debated among bloggers. It’s not always easy to post on a schedule, especially when family and offline work calls, so lets talk about why you should consider posting schedule and what frequency you should post.

Before we get too far, we should also remember that a posting schedule does not mean you have to post 5 times a week. Posting one time per week on the same day is still a schedule.

Should You Have A Posting Schedule?

One of the main arguments for not having a posting schedule is genuinely inspired posts. Being on a strict schedule can force you to publish posts that aren’t completely polished; by only posting when you feel like posting, you ensure that your content is always inspired.

The downfall of not having a schedule is you can easily never make time to post, and your blog and readership will die. Some also argue that unpredictable posting can hurt your following. To counter that just encourage readers to subscribe to your RSS, then they’ll know when to check your site.

Posting on a schedule is great for building a reputation for being reliable and consistent. Your readers will know when to check your site, and people who stumble upon your site will know when to expect new work.

When you start running short on ideas, inspiration, or time, the deadline of a schedule can make your post articles that aren’t your best. One way Daniel Scocco mentions in his free ebook on how to combat this is filler posts. Instead of going for the fences with every article, try writing several good posts building up to one killer post.

Extra tip: Thrus/Friday after 3 pm have the highest CTR and number of retweets.

What is the Best Posting Frequency?

Posting frequency also plays a huge role in how fast your blog will grow. I’ve noticed on Props Blog that posting 4 or more times per week causing my traffic to increase faster than only posting 2 or 3 times. Posting less than once every 10 days will stunt your growth.

One of the main advantages to posting 4 or more times per week is the content is almost always fresh for new readers. Most people aren’t interested in reading an old dead blog, so several week gaps between posts can kill your readership unless your already established.

The major disadvantage to a high post frequency is similar to a posting schedule; it’s easy to run out of ideas, run out of time, or get burned out. It is also frustrating having a bunch of posts that don’t get very many views because of a high post frequency. If that’s being a problem, consider submitting some of your articles for guest posts on a larger blog (just be sure not to publish on both blogs).

It all comes down to the goals and purpose of your blog. For building a passive following infrequent/unscheduled posts are probably fine. If you’re trying to grow fast, frequent posts are a must and a schedule is probably a good idea.

Do you have a post schedule? Have you noticed post frequency has helped or hurt you?

Photo Credit: Andreanna Moya Photography and Joe Lanman.

Don’t Judge A Blog By It’s Homepage: At Online Marketing Blog Content is King

Blake Waddill — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:31:18 +0000

Knowing where to start with SEO, social media, and online marketing can be confusing and frustrating. Even if you know your way around, there’s always more to the ever changing puzzle than it seems.

The Online Marketing Blog, TopRankBlog.com, is one of the best places to go to learn about all forms of online marketing ranging from search and SEO to social media.

Top Rank Online Marketing Blog

Site: www.toprankblog.com

Contributors: Lee Odden (CEO), Julie Brue, Jolina Pettice, Adam Singer, Thomas McHahon, Michelle Bowles, and Mike Yanke

Online since: Feb 2005

Page Rank: 6

Ad Age Rank: Top 10 (currently 9)

Alexa Rank: 9,114

Inbound Links: 174, 946 (source: websitegrader.com)

Pageviews per month: 1.1 million (source: Google Ad Planner)

Feedburner Subscribers: 27,543

Design and Layout

The design of the site doesn’t even slightly represent the quality of content. In fact, I’ve personally skipped past this blog more than once due to its appearance.

The site doesn’t have a distinguishable logo or banner, and the layout looks like a free 3 column theme you can download anywhere. The sidebars feel cluttered with badges which makes the site uninviting. Don’t let the amateur look fool you into judging this blog by its cover; this site is packed so full of content it’s hard to stop reading.

Amazing Online Marketing Content

If you have even the slightest interest in online marketing, scanning through the Top Rank Blog archives will make your heart flutter. As I mentioned before, they cover a huge variety of online marketing topics including: Blogging, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, PPC, SEO, Social Media, and more.

Don’t mistake TopRankBlog for a simple Make Money Online blog. They do cover MMO and so much more. If you have a business doing any marketing online you’ll find amazing tips, how-to’s, and lists to make you more successful and give you a better understanding of what you’re doing.

One of the best offerings on TopRankBlog are the BIGLIST updates. Every so often, they post a list of the best SEO/SEM blogs on the net. If you’ve having a hard time finding reliable resources covering search topics, the BIGLISTs are a great place to start.

I’ve always believed it’s hard to have a successful blog without a professional appearance, but Top Rank Online Marketing Blog proves once again that badass content can still be king.

If you’re ready to get some seriously good online marketing advice, look no further than Top Rank Online Marketing Blog.

Image Credit: Chris.Merwe’s Flickr

Sampling Mojitos Can Teach You About Marketing Online

Blake Waddill — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:59:49 +0000

For the last couple of months I have been doing liquor tastings and demos at stores all over the DFW metroplex. I’ve also done promotions for some other companies like I.O. Metro handing out flyers and waving people in and even for Frito Lays handing out Sunchips. (yummy!)

This got me thinking about what really works for marketing both online and offline.

From what I have seen, interaction has a much greater impact on people than putting a sign in front of someone. Much like those 125×125 ads most of us have on our blogs, the majority of people never even notice a sign for flyer (or notice it, but don’t respond).

Teaching someone to make a drink while they are shopping for liquor is powerful. The conversion rate for people who take the time to let me teach them to make a Cubra Libre or a Mojito is amazingly high because the people sampling and learning have a time investment, and I have built personal trust for the brand.

You’ve probably been at a bar or club where shot girls were handing out samples, but how often do you buy more? The demos we run have a 30-50% conversion rate (some higher). That’s better spent money in my book.

The liquor store demos target the consumer in a place where they can take action right away, and they are in an environment where they are likely to remember rather than being drunk.

We as bloggers can learn from this. People “driving by” and people not look buy aren’t likely to convert. People who have already taken action (signing up for a newsletter) or someone coming to a page for information about a product are ready to buy at some level.

The biggest mistake I’ve made for making money blogging is hoping ads will convert. For huge sites they might some, but reviews and recommendations work infinitely better.

John Chow makes $40,000+/month basically reviewing products and building hype via newsletter. He doesn’t even try to hide that’s what he does. There is balance though. Not every post is a call to action. Many are tips or industry news, and that’s what builds the following of people who trust him and are ready to take action.

If you get nothing else from this, take this: build trust via interaction and free assistance then make a clear call to action when your audience can act.

Image Credit: Image taken from Tinypic Free Image Hosting

Sometimes Not Enough Is Still Too Much

Blake Waddill — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:13:54 +0000

Many of us have an academic background where you can never write too much. If it’s not 5 paragraphs with an intro, three supporting argument paragraphs, and a conclusion, then it’s formatted wrong (this of course is the minimum. More fluff/garage is required the higher the class).

Blogging is different. Most of us don’t have time to read 3-5 pages of essay when there are 25 other blogs begging to be read, so why do we bother writing that much? At first, a post might not seem like enough, but trust me, it is.

Brevity is what Chris Brogan preaches with conviction. Seth Godin is the king of holy cow omg wow short posts. Even Daily Blog Tips keeps the posts short and sweet.

Especially with blogging, it is critical to get to the point quickly. Make it easy to scan to find the major points by using short paragraphs (and headers). Instead of trying to get every thought and tangent into a single post, spread them out.

I’m guilty of writing too much in every post, and even now I want to write more about how sometimes not enough is still too much…

That’s it, I’m done!

(Under 200 words! Booyah!)

Photo Credit: Image by Alexandre Duret-Lutz. Licensed via Creative Commons.

Everything You Thought You Knew About SEO Is Wrong

Blake Waddill — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 06:27:02 +0000

The two biggest ways to get new traffic to your site are SEO and word of mouth (social media). Which traffic is better is debatable. I’ve read many sources that say search engine traffic converts better because the visitor was already searching for something specific whereas social media is usually not as targeted.

Regardless, search engines will likely send you the most long term traffic and definitely the most passive traffic of any source. I had to take a 6 week break from blogging, but I still continued to receive search engine traffic.

We’ve all read the standard SEO tips before. Get backlinks, using h(x) tags, keyword density without overstuffing, etc… The fact of the matter is, none of use statistical evidence to cite our beliefs.

SEOmoz, self proclaimed “Best SEO Resource,” published some statistic recording the correlation between the ever popular inbound links, h(x) tags, URL keyword stuffing, etc… This article has made me question what I’ve read about SEO.

According to SEOmoz statistics, total number of inbound links does not necessarily lead a better SERP. Nor does keywords in titles. Nor does the use of h(x) tags. All things that are regularly preached by the majority of bloggers including yours truly.

What SEOmoz does claim works is tagging your images. I can verify this based on my 6 week absence. WP Stats records the search term people use to find your page even if it is an image. Google Analytics does not include stats on image searches (as far as I can tell). Based on these numbers, around half my search engine traffic comes from tagged images.

So does this mean the practices we’ve been told to use are all lies? Nope.

While their charts seem impressive, we already know that no single method alone can be used to improve our SERP. A recent article from SEO Book does a great job of pointing out that SEO is as much art as science.

The take away message from all this to me is simple. While all those great tips like building links and writing keyword relevant titles might not get you the top rank alone, but even if they don’t have a perfect relation, they probably do help. Sooner or later you’ll get there. And oh yeah, don’t forget to label your images!

Could Your Site Benefit More From Social Bookmarks?

Blake Waddill — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 06:01:18 +0000

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably already know that social media has exploded over the last couple of years. The rate of growth seems exponential, and the user demographics for social media has expanded from internet geeks and bored students to just about every type of user you can think of.

In fact, my mother-in-law is so hooked on Facebook that if she doesn’t get her daily dose of it, she starts having major withdrawal symptoms including (but not limited to): moodiness, shaking, tremors, nausea, cold sweet, seizures, bleeding from the eyes, ears, and nose, and occasional death.

For a blogger, social media and social bookmarking sites are a Godsend. They are like instant free advertisement that establishes more trust and credibility than a PPC ad could ever hope to. They also build authority which no amount of money can buy.

With Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Mixx, Sphinn, Reddit, Technorati, and many other sites available for sharing, it is hard to know which one to focus on.

Sites like Facebook and Twitter seem to require a lot of interaction with other users to get the most value out of them while it seems like other sites like Stumble Upon works best when you just do your own thing and hope the quality of your content helps you build traffic.

Rather than trying to make your blog or articles popular on multiple sites, sometimes focusing on one or two can be far more effective.

The best way to choose which site to focus on is to consider your demographics and topics. In general, I think Twitter is always a good choice because the Tweetmeme button is so easy to use, and Twitter seems to spread in a viral fashion more frequently than the other sharing sites (although it doesn’t bring as much traffic as say, a short stretch on the front page of Digg).

Social Media Trader wrote an awesome article detailing the types of articles that became popular on Digg, Stumble, Delicious, Reddit, and Propeller. I noticed that Delicious is ideal for How To articles, whereas Reddit is far more popular for news and politics.

Search Engine Journal also has a list of 125 Social Bookmarking Sites with a short description of each one. This is a very valuable resource for finding social bookmarking sites that fit your topics.

Get The Most From Your Social Bookmarking Promotion

If you really want to make yourself successful with social bookmarking, “spray and pray” is very unlikely to get you on the front page of anything or spread like wildfire. Most users are partial to just one or two bookmarking sites so asking for too much will get you none.

Focus on one or two bookmarking sites that are appropriate for your niche and Twitter or Facebook. Encourage your readers to bookmark you on those sites.

Finally, if you write an article that is off topic from your normal genre (or you randomly start getting traffic from), make a button for the bookmarking site you want to be shared on for that individual page.

Overall, there are a ton of ways for social media and social bookmarking to increase the traffic to your blog. Don’t get too caught up in the frenzy though; instead, pick and choose where you want to be successful, and you’ll have a much better shot of reaching your goals and improving your traffic.